THE PHOTO BOOTH: Ben's Got Your Back

Ben Mittleman, an art director at McCann Erickson in New York, has an ongoing personal photo project: "I shoot people from behind," he says. In grotesquely congested Manhattan, one spends a lot of time looking at people from behind, "and I realized you can get a great deal of information about someone from the side less photographed." Frequently way too much information if they're smoking, but that's another story. Mittleman (www.benmittleman.com) is refreshingly old school — he's using a Canon AE-1 from his high school days. "I should at least shoot with a telephoto lens, but I'm using a 50mm, and when someone hears the click of the shutter I quickly point the camera in another direction and play it cool." At any rate, "Someone's story from the back is quieter and more subtle," he says, though maybe not in the case of the pic we're leading with here. On a similar note, "I'm not a total ass man," Mittleman points out. "I love a pretty elbow as well." Got personal photography you want to flaunt? Send it to terryk@crain.com today!